Chris Dufresne, Los Angeles Times: Is the Mountain West Conference deserving of an automatic bid to a Bowl Championship Series game? Coaches say the league would be more competitive than the Atlantic Coast Conference, whose teams are a dismal 1-9 in BCS games.
Bryant-Jon Anteola, Fresno Bee: Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson acknowledged that the replay official working the Wisconsin-Fresno State game made an error when he overturned a fumble in the Bulldogs' favor.
Jeff Metcalfe, Arizona Republic: ABC analyst Kirk Herbstreit will be back in the broadcast booth of an Arizona State game for the first time since his comments that quarterback Rudy Carpenter said or did things to taunt and incite Texas before last year's Holiday Bowl.
Anthony Gimino, Tucson Citizen: Could Arizona State, which skated on a favorable schedule to 10 victories in 2007, be headed for a 2-5 start in 2008?
Doug Segrest, Birmingham News: The NCAA in May paid $150,000 to recruiting analyst Tom Culpepper, a secret witness in an NCAA investigation of recruiting practices at Alabama, to end an indemnity agreement between the parties, according to court records.
Jared Eborn, Deseret News: Have some players already quit on Utah State coach Brent Guy? "We don't know how to win," senior receiver Otis Nelson said. "People just don't compete — period. If something goes bad, they don't want to fight back. They don't want to go through adversity, fight back."
Pete Pelegrin, Miami Herald: Florida International is set to unveil its $50 million on-campus stadium Saturday night when it plays host to South Florida.
A.J. Carr, Raleigh News & Observer: East Carolina athletic director Terry Holland said he doesn't hear realignment and expansion talk rumbling across the college football landscape — certainly not any involving the Pirates.
Mike Jones, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Oklahoma defensive tackle DeMarcus Granger, who suffered an injury to his left foot when three Washington players ganged up on him last Saturday, could be out for the season.
Jeff McLane, Philadelphia Inquirer: Suspended Penn State defensive linemen Maurice Evans and Abe Koroma were each charged with one count of possession of marijuana.
That's hilarious that Gimino is commenting on ASU getting off to a rough start. The only time any writer in tuscum writes about ASU is when they have a chance to take a swipe at them, to the delight of the local yokels. He should be worrying about the total decay of the athletic department in his own city rather than taking swipes at a team that's had more success than they could even dream of.
Posted by: Mark | September 18, 2008 at 09:39 AM